We often get asked by clients: “How often should I add content to my website?”

As an internet marketing company who gains profit from web programming and maintenance, it is hard to answer this question. Most likely, we will adding the content to their website and, therefore, charging them for the programming involved. We do not wish to look like we are “beefing up” our estimate to our benefit. However, as a reputable web programming firm which prides itself on good customer relationships, we owe it to our clients to be honest in our answers and estimations.

Search Engine Optimization advisors recommend that you add new content to your website once a week. This gives the search engines more meat to work with and also shows them (and your customers) that your site is active.

Upon receiving the content, you may need to adjust the timetable for your client, so be sure that you clarify at the beginning of your relationship that you will give them an estimate of how long the edits will take before you begin updates. Case in point, if they want to add a new section, your estimate should be much larger than adding one page of content to an existing department.

Don’t forget that just adding photos to a site does not constitute adding content. While the search engines will notice a slight difference, this does not match the benefit of including keyword rich content to an established website. This doesn’t mean that the new content needs to be 10,000 words of technical specs on a new product. Rather, it should be a summary of your new information with important phrases that will help your current and prospective customers find you through a search engine.

So, how often should you add content to your website? Try to add a page a week and maybe a new section every six months. Sticking to this timetable will ensure that you can handle updates in a timely manner and not be overwhelmed by trying to get 20 pages of content onto your site before that big presentation.

Would you like to find out about a maintenance package to handle your new content? Consider contacting Intra-Focus, Inc. to ask about their affordable web maintenance and SEO packages.